April 2001. Gene Thrailkill's last concert after 30 years as Director of Bands at the University of Oklahoma. He conducts numbers with all the university wind ensembles, but his band, the Concert Band, is last on the program, and he concludes this final concert with a march, as he is wont to do, but the king of all marches: The Stars & Stripes Forever. It's edited in Sousa performance style by his own college band director, the venerable William Revelli.

It includes extra brass in the grandioso strain and is followed by the capacity crowd singing the OU Chant, and by a spontaneous expression of university spirit. This is not the most polished performance of Stars & Stripes I've ever heard, but I was there, and it's the one I go to when I want to feel good.

Coach is busy in his retirement, and his Web site is hosted on this very server. He updated it last weekend with pictures of family and grandkids, plus a bit of what's been going on. Visit it and, if you know him, drop him a note. If not, enjoy the music. Happy 4th of July.